Students get glimpse into energy at Job Shadow Day

Jonathan Ramos watched with classmates as Journeymen Servicemen Fred Hernandez and Bernie Gutierrez gave them a close look at their bucket truck, tools and equipment. Jonathan tried on a tool belt, gloves and a hard hat.

“Everything was so heavy I could barely walk,” said the eighth grader from Christa McAuliffe Middle School. “I can’t imagine climbing poles with it.”

He then learned how electricity is generated from various energy sources and delivered to homes through a network of poles, wires, substations and transmission towers.

“I didn’t realize the energy business was this complex.”

Jonathan was one of more than 100 students from Southwest ISD middle schools who recently took part in our Job Shadow Day. Employees from Gas Delivery, Enterprise & Public Safety, Fleet Operations and several other departments hosted students for a morning of fun, educational activities. Each group took turns rotating to nine different stations to learn about jobs at our company.

Our event was part of a SA Works citywide Job Shadow Day that connected the city’s future workforce with local professionals from H-E-B, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, Toyota, Accenture, the City of San Antonio and Bexar County. Nearly 3,000 local students from more than 14 school districts, including private and charter schools, participated.

“Students learn that every job needs training, education and preparation to be successful,” said Gilbert. “They get to see that math is important and not just numbers on paper. Thanks to CPS Energy for hosting us today. This was an eye-opening experience for the students!”

Although Jonathan wasn’t inspired to become a utility worker, we could still see him at CPS Energy someday since he’s interested in software engineering.

Last summer, we had promising IT students working with our Enterprise Information Technology team through our SITE (Students Interested in Technical Education) internship program.